Category Archives: Russia

Russia-Ukraine war: Putin has already lost ‘strategically, operationally and tactically’, says US general – as it happened

Posted on by

This live blog has now closed, you can read more about the Russia-Ukraine war here

An air alert has been declared across several southern areas of Ukraine including Mykolaiv, Kherson and Odesa.

Earlier, Volodymyr Litinov, head of the Beryslav district administration in the Kherson region reported on Telegram that Russian shelling in the previous 24 hours had damaged “the hospital building, residential buildings and farm buildings” in the area, but that “fortunately, there were no civilian casualties.”

This is Martin Belam in London taking over the live blog.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war: Nato seeing start of new Russian offensive already, says Stoltenberg

Posted on by

As it happened: Nato secretary general said Putin sending thousands more troops and accepting big losses to pile pressure on Ukrainians

Reuters reports that an unverified video is being circulated on social media which appears to show the murder with a sledgehammer of a former Russian mercenary who fled the Wagner mercenary group while fighting in Ukraine, in a clip similar to that which showed the killing of Yevgeny Nuzhin in November last year.

In the video published by the Grey Zone Telegram channel, which is linked to Wagner, a man identifies himself as Dmitry Yakushchenko, 44. In the clip the agency reports that facing the camera in a seated position, Yakushchenko appears to recite his name and year of birth.

Continue reading...

Moldova president accuses Russia of plotting to oust pro-EU government

Posted on by

Maia Sandu says plan revealed by Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been confirmed

Moldova’s president has accused Russia of plotting to overthrow the country’s pro-EU government through violent actions disguised as opposition protest.

Maia Sandu said authorities had confirmed an alleged Russian plot to destabilise her country that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had revealed last week.

Continue reading...

Wagner head warns it could take two years to achieve Moscow’s objectives – as it happened

Posted on by

Yevgeny Prigozhin says Moscow’s stated aim of capturing eastern regions unlikely to happen in 2023. This blog is now closed

Ukraine’s presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, who headed the country’s negotiating team in the early phases of the conflict, has said “talks are out of the question”.

Podolyak posted to Twitter that Moscow was refusing to withdraw from occupied Ukrainian territories and to admit to “crimes”.

Continue reading...

Russia’s plans to seize eastern Ukraine could take two years, says Wagner boss

Posted on by

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s comments suggest Moscow is preparing for a long conflict, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy renews appeal for fighter jets

• Ukraine war live

The boss of the Russian mercenary Wagner group said it could take Russia two years to seize the entire east of Ukraine in a rare interview that suggests at least some key figures in Moscow are gearing up for a protracted conflict.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has emerged from the shadows to become a high-profile figure since the start of the war, suggested Russia’s focus was now on capturing the rest of the Donbas region it has not occupied since the start of the war nearly a year ago.

Continue reading...

Crackdown on ‘birth tourism’ as pregnant Russians flock to Argentina

Posted on by

South American country has seen rise since Ukraine invasion in Russian women arriving to have children and thus gain citizenship

Immigration authorities in Argentina are cracking down on Russian women who since the invasion of Ukraine have started travelling to Buenos Aires to give birth in order to gain Argentinian citizenship for their children.

The director of Argentina’s immigration office, Florencia Carignano, said on Friday that a judicial investigation has been launched into what she described as a lucrative business that promises Argentinian passports for the Russian parents.

Continue reading...

Marina Ovsyannikova says she still fears for her life after ‘chaotic’ escape to France

Posted on by

Former Russian TV editor, who was under house arrest, described her journey across Europe last October

Marina Ovsyannikova, the former Russian state TV editor who famously interrupted a live news broadcast to protest against the start of the Ukraine war, has described her “chaotic” escape from house arrest in Moscow and how she fled across Europe to seek asylum in France.

“I didn’t want to emigrate until the very last moment,” Ovsyannikova said at a Paris press conference with the journalists’ organisation Reporters without Borders. “Russia is still my country, even if war criminals have power there. But I had no choice – it was either prison or exile. I’m very grateful to France, a free country, to have welcomed me.”

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war: ‘no indication’ of direct military threat to Moldova or Romania, says US – as it happened

Posted on by

This live blog has now closed, you can read more of our Russia-Ukraine war coverage here

The latest inteligence briefing on the situation in Ukraine from the UK’s Ministry of Defence suggests that “Russian forces have likely made tactical gains in two key sectors” since 7 February. It states:

On the northern outskirts of the Donbas town of Bakhmut, Wagner Group forces have pushed 2-3km further west, controlling countryside near the M-03 main route into the town. Russian forces increasingly dominate the northern approaches to Bakhmut.

To the south, Russian units have made advances around the western edge of the town of Vuhledar, where they re-launched offensive operations in late January 2023.

At 4am, the enemy launched rocket attacks on the city of Kharkiv and the region with S-300 missiles. Critical and infrastructure facilities were targeted. Fires broke out, which the rescuers managed to quickly put out. However, some areas of the city remain without electricity. Specialists are working to eliminate the consequences of the impact. Fortunately, there were no casualties.

Continue reading...

Trump-Russia: ‘investigation of investigators’ leaves little but questions over bias

Posted on by

Durham inquiry into origins of FBI’s Trump-Russia scrutiny has sparked allegations of a weaponization of justice department

When the Trump justice department tapped a US attorney to examine the origins of the FBI inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, conservatives and many Republicans hoped it would end the idea Donald Trump’s campaign was boosted by Moscow and back his charges that some FBI officials and others had conspired against him.

But instead, as the multi-year investigation winds down, it is ending with accusations that unethical actions by that special counsel – John Durham – and ex-attorney general William Barr “weaponized” the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to help Trump.

Continue reading...

Russian cruise missiles crossed into Moldova and Romania, says Ukraine

Posted on by

Apparent violation of countries’ airspace comes as Kremlin launches major missile and drone attack

Two Russian cruise missiles have entered the airspace of Moldova and Romania, Ukraine has said, in the latest attack by Moscow on targets across the country.

Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, said the Kalibr rockets crossed into Moldova at 10.18am local time on Friday. They then flew into Romania at 10.33am at the intersection of the state border, before recrossing into western Ukraine, he said.

Continue reading...

Russia begins major offensive in eastern Ukraine, Luhansk governor claims

Posted on by

Serhiy Haidai says Moscow’s forces are trying unsuccessfully to advance westwards in ‘maximum’ escalation

Russia has launched a major offensive in eastern Ukraine and is trying to break through defences near the town of Kreminna, the governor for the Luhansk region said on Thursday.

Serhiy Haidai told Ukrainian TV that Russian troops had gone on the attack and were trying to advance westwards across a winter landscape of snow and forests. There had been “maximum escalation” and a big increase in shooting and shelling, he said.

Continue reading...

Fury in Ukraine as Elon Musk’s SpaceX limits Starlink use for drones

Posted on by

SpaceX says satellite communications service ‘never, never meant to be weaponised’

A senior Ukrainian presidential aide has reacted with anger after Elon Musk’s SpaceX said it had taken steps to prevent its Starlink satellite communications service from controlling drones, which are critical to Kyiv’s forces in fighting off the Russian invasion.

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s chief operating officer, said at a conference in the US that the surprise decision had been taken because it had never been the company’s intention to allow Starlink to be used “for offensive purposes”.

Continue reading...

‘Wrong side of history’: Ukraine athletes accuse IOC of ‘kowtowing’ to Russia

Posted on by
  • Letter says ‘IOC must choose a side in this war’
  • Ukraine would boycott 2024 Olympics if Russia take part

Ukraine’s athletes have accused the International Olympic Committee of rewarding Vladimir Putin’s aggression and being “on the wrong side of history” in an escalating war of words over whether Russians should compete at the Paris 2024 Games. The IOC recently moved away from having an outright ban on athletes from Russia and Belarus and is investigating ways they can qualify for the Olympics under a neutral flag.

In a letter to Ukraine’s National Olympic Committee, sent last week, the IOC president, Thomas Bach, criticised Ukraine’s threat to boycott the Games, saying it would violate the Olympic charter. That stance has angered Ukraine’s athletes, who have hit back by suggesting the IOC is “kowtowing” to Russia.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war: UK will not send fighter jets to Ukraine ‘if there is a risk to British safety’ – as it happened

Posted on by

This live blog has now closed, you can read more on the situation in Ukraine here

A leading military aviation analyst, Justin Bronk at the Rusi thinktank, says the UK could probably spare only a handful of its oldest, Tranche 1, Typhoons amounting to around 20 to 25. Ukraine has said it needs around 200 western fighters to create a war winning air force.

The fighters were, he tweeted, “not optimised for low altitude” – flying of the type needed to evade Russian air defences, and were not well designed to operate from the simple, dispersed airfields used by Ukraine to evade detection.

Continue reading...

Ukraine denounces Roger Waters as ‘another brick in the wall’ of Moscow propaganda

Posted on by

Kyiv outraged as Pink Floyd star accepts Russian invitation to speak at UN security council and calls for immediate ceasefire

The veteran Pink Floyd rocker, Roger Waters, has addressed the UN security council at Russia’s invitation, and called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. But he was denounced by the Ukrainian ambassador as “just another brick in the wall” of Moscow’s propaganda.

Waters spoke via a video link, dressed in a light brown tweed jacket, appearing on a screen looming over representatives of the 15 nations on the council, convened on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

Continue reading...

EU urged to use frozen Russian assets to ‘cover costs of aggression’ in Ukraine

Posted on by

Poland and Baltic states say bloc should seize funds to start rebuilding country, amid questions of legality

Poland and the Baltic states have urged the EU to work on seizing frozen Russian state assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine “as soon as possible”, raising pressure to act on a legally fraught question.

In the run-up to a two-day EU summit that will discuss the Russian invasion, the leaders of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia said that, “in order to be credible on this matter vis-a-vis Ukraine”, the bloc had to go beyond reiterating previous commitments and “accelerate our work in the council right now”.

Continue reading...

Scottish MP Stewart McDonald fears emails hacked by Russia-linked group

Posted on by

SNP MP for Glasgow South says he is victim of ‘sophisticated and targeted spear phishing’ attack

An SNP MP whose emails were hacked has spoken out because he fears they were stolen by a group linked to Russia and will be published.

Stewart McDonald’s emails were compromised last month after he clicked on a message from a member of his staff on his private MP’s account.

Continue reading...